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Two-thirds of child car passengers are being put at risk of injury or death because of poorly fitted seats, the Observer has learned. At least 66% of car seats for babies and young children
are wrongly fitted, according to figures supplied by local authority
road safety officers around the country. Many were poorly fitted by
parents, but a separate investigation by consumer group Which? found
that almost half those installed by retailers' own fitting services were

Safety experts are mindful that it is the particularly difficult
developmental phase of the children affected: squirmy toddlers who will
resist being confined in safety seats facing any direction. I saw many
instances of this while I was there.

“Once parents understand why it’s safer,” said Patty Difilippo, a
nurse at Mountainside Hospital and a senior Car Seat Technician and
instructor at the station, “most will gladly wait to turn the car seat
around.”

Last April, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) updated their guidelines
to recommend parents keep their children in rear-facing car seats until
at least the age of two. To determine if parents are receiving that
important safety message, the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National
Poll on Children’s Heath found that 73 percent of parents turned the
seat around prior to two years of age and 30 percent prior to one year.

Driving away with "total peace of mind" should be a given when it
comes to installing a child's car seat – and that is what Halfords'
seat-fitting service promises on its website. But, as one family
discovered, it is essential to check before you even think of turning